Lead Program Manager, Design

Summary

Join Airbnb's Design Operations team as a Lead Design Program Manager! Partner with Design Managers, Directors, and cross-functional leaders to deliver quarterly and annual roadmap objectives. Drive alignment across teams through planning, communication, and program management. Lead the end-to-end scoping, planning, execution, and launch of programs. Serve as a bridge between business functions, aligning stakeholders and providing progress visibility. This role requires strong program management skills, experience with cross-functional teams, and a passion for organizational excellence. The position is US-Remote Eligible with occasional office work.

Requirements

• BA/BS with 12+ years Consulting, Program Management, Product Management, Project Management or relevant experience
• Demonstrated ability to work through ambiguity to detailed solutions. You can take a vague problem, crisply frame the challenge, identify a path forward, and drive an initiative over the finish-line
• Track record of managing and shipping impactful design initiatives in a large digital product org
• Long-term strategic thinking balanced with near-term execution skills. Distinctive problem solving skills
• Proven ability to build strong relationships and influence business leaders
• Demonstrable leadership skills and experience in mediation, negotiation, and conflict resolution
• Demonstrated track record successfully managing ambitious and operationally complex projects with cross-functional teams
• Experience in structuring and implementing initiatives at scale with design and product teams
• Background in establishing systems: experience developing process where little exists, and demonstrated flexibility to get things done
• Passionate and enthusiastic about organizational excellence and attention to detail
• Thrives in ambiguity in a fast-paced, hyper-growth organization

Responsibilities

• Drive consistency and harmony in design team operating rhythm, including communication structures, project templates, leadership cadence, and resource utilization
• Initiate and run internal initiatives that significantly improve the Design org’s operations and cross-functional ways of working
• Optimize interaction models between Product Marketing, Engineering, Design, Creative, and Marketing, influencing cross-functionally to identify opportunity, unlock productivity, and accelerate execution
• Drive continuous improvement leveraging lessons learned from teams to celebrate successes as well as identify ways to improve
• Identify and predict obstacles, collisions, and risk to projects across multiple teams and seek solutions to eliminate them
• Inspire, develop, and challenge Airbnb's Design Program Management team, modeling excellence
• Build a following: attract and nurture the best talent
• Partner with our Design Managers and/or Directors and cross-functional leaders to drive delivery of quarterly and annual roadmap objectives and ensure that what we promise in our roadmap is what we deliver in our product
• Drive tight alignment of activities across teams through cross-functional planning, strong communication, and rigorous program management
• Lead the end-to-end scoping, planning, execution, and launch of your program to deliver success for our product, hosts, and guests
• Serve as the bridge between critical business functions, aligning stakeholders, providing visibility into the workstream's progress, elevating risks, and shepherding the team through the process of bringing our work to life
• Partner closely with the Head of Design Program Management to provide insight on program progress and raise any red flags that could affect delivery

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep knowledge of and appreciation for the Product Design process
• Experience with or understanding of cross-functional (Design, Product Management, Product Marketing, Engineering) product-driven organizations or digital agency

Benefits

• Bonus
• Equity
• Benefits
• Employee Travel Credits